Haiti is expected to witness the return of its ousted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide after an official climbdown.

The government has announced that it was ready to issue a diplomatic passport to Aristide, who has stated publicly that he would like to return from exile in South Africa.

This follows the reappearance in Haiti last month of former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

But there may yet be bureaucratic wrangling about when Aristide can travel. Ira Kurzban, his American lawyer, said he sent a letter to Haitian authorities on Sunday requesting a passport on Aristide's behalf. Officials publicly denied receiving any such request. "If the government of Haiti is serious about it, the steps are very clear," Kurzban said. "This cat and mouse game should stop. I suggested they could give the passport to the government of South Africa."

Haiti should begin talks with South Africa, he added, and ensure that security measures will be in place for Aristide's return, as stipulated by law for ex-presidents. "I'm certain that if all the appropriate steps are taken, the former president will leave immediately. He's ready and anxious."

Aristide is a former priest and liberation theologist who rose to become Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1991, but was overthrown in a coup later that year. He returned to power from 1994 to 1996, won another election amid boycotts in 2000 and was then ousted again four years later.

His lack of a passport has long been given as a principal technical reason impeding his return. Haitian officials say he would not need a passport to re-enter Haiti, but may do to pass through other countries on his way back from South Africa.

Haiti's interior minister, Paul-Antoine Bien-Aimé, said in an official letter, sent on Monday, that no passport had been requested. "It appears that to date, neither [foreign nor interior] ministry had received a request for issuance or renewal of passports from the former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide."

The letter was sent to media in two versions, one French and the other Haitian Creole. The French version says: "The government of the republic gives its assurance that as soon as it is made, such a request will be honoured promptly."

The Creole differs slightly: "The government gives a guarantee that if President Aristide requests a passport, it will respond to him quickly."

President René Préval's's chief of staff, Fritz Longchamp, said: "The French version is more accurate than the Creole."

He said ministers decided last week to announce that Aristide could get a passport if he applied. Longchamp added this has been a long-standing position, reiterated to "lay to rest all the speculation" that the government was preventing his return.

Speculation that Aristide might come back to Haiti soared after Duvalier stepped off an Air France jet in January in a shocking return from nearly 25 years of exile.

If Aristide followed, he would arrive in the middle of a political crisis in which Préval's chosen presidential candidate is deadlocked with a rival in a delayed electoral runoff.

In a statement issued by South Africa's foreign ministry last month, Aristide said: "Since my forced arrival in the mother continent six-and-a-half years ago, the people of Haiti have never stopped calling for my return to Haiti.

"As far as I am concerned, I am ready. Once again I express my readiness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time."

Last week a full-page advert ran in the Miami Herald calling for a new passport and for Aristide's immediate return. It carried 190 signatures including social organisations, political figures such as Jesse Jackson and deputy UN special envoy to Haiti Paul Farmer, singer Harry Belafonte and actor Danny Glover, and names associated with controversy such as the Rev Jeremiah Wright and imprisoned radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

US state department spokesman PJ Crowley posted on Twitter last week: "We do not doubt President Aristide's desire to help the people of Haiti. But today Haiti needs to focus on its future, not its past."